


Beneath the Waves

by AcrylicMist



Category: Homestuck
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Magic, Blood and Gore, Classpecting weirdness, Explicit Language, Homestuck - Freeform, Its Karkat what do you expect?, M/M, Merstuck, Other, Pirates, Sea Trolls, Violence, cursing, davekat - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 09:51:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8745625
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AcrylicMist/pseuds/AcrylicMist
Summary: I had a dream about this last night, woke up, and immediately vomited this onto a word document.A captive Karkat meets the Strilondes, pirates who took over the ship he was trapped on, and both a jailbreak and a friendship happens.Warning! Contains graphic descriptions and foul language.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Ha! Proof I didn't drop off the face of the Earth after writing Three Things Left Unsaid and leave you all to deal with the emotional pain it caused without me. I'm not that bad of a person. I'm currently writing three more serious Davekat fics, and this is just a daily exercise off a crappy dream I had to break my posting hiatus. I'll have some actually good and serious works up soon, I swear. Feedback is appreciated! Forgive me, this is my second posted fic and I'm still new at this.

I hoped they all died. I hope the pirates slit their throats. I watched the scene unfold through a gap in the wooden siding.

During the battle, I stayed hidden. I wasn’t a coward, but there was no way I was helping anyone on this God forsaken ship. The merchant ship that had imprisoned me had been kind enough to provide a leaky tarp to cover the top of the cage formed by some repurposed and splintering shipping crates, and it was in this small spot of darkness where I stayed while pirates boarded and looted the vessel I hated.

I stayed silent. I could hear them, hear the grunts and screams and hoarse shouts that came from the skilled pirates and hopelessly outmatched merchant crew as they fought. I was motionless, afraid that if I moved they would hear the drag of the heavy iron chains that bound me to the railing like a dog and come for me.

I stayed hopeful. I watched the proceedings though a gap in one of the crates that I had used many times before because it showed a sliver of the open deck. I silently cheered each time one of the crewmembers that I had been bound to for three years fell back, beat off by one of the pirates, the ring and clash of their blades covering the ever present sound of the sea.

There were no bodies falling to the deck, not yet. The invaders were skillful, yet they killed no merchant. Pity. I wanted to see more of their blood spill than this.

I clutched the wood shard I had slowly pried up weeks before from the boards beneath me, ready and willing to use it as a weapon on anyone if I was discovered. Such painful hope, mixed with a clear, vibrant terror that I hardly knew what to feel. This was going to change things. The double beat of my heart pounded thickly as the battle was fought up and down the deck until few enough defenders remained uninjured that surrender was unavoidable.

The captain- bloodied, beaten, wrapped in his green cloak and leaning heavily on his wooden leg, gave in with good grace. He made sure that the survival of his remaining crewmates was certain, and readily gave up where the most valuable of his goods were stored. Throughout the whole venture, not one of his crew or himself spared as much as a glance in my direction. Not one single glance.

I was not surprised. They had kept me a secret for so long that I wondered if they even knew how to give it up. Spill the beans like blood onto the deck of the ship. It would be like ripping out an eyeball, painful and blinding, for no good reason. Let me be the pirates’ problem now. They were free.

After the battle, the crew were rounded up and set adrift in the longboats with enough food and fresh water to last for a week. They wouldn’t need it. This was a populated stretch of sea frequented by fishers and merchant vessels similar to this one. They would be found.

I couldn’t understand why the merchants were shown such mercy by the pirates. I’d heard stories about pirates killing everyone aboard a vessel before. Why did my pirates have to be kind? What sense did that make?  
I drew in a hissing breath, still holding the shard of wood. I was still onboard and hidden, and I wanted the next part of this story to unfold.  
I watched the unfamiliar pirates as they moved about the vessel.

I didn’t understand every word they said, but I understood enough to know what was going on. Three years was plenty of time to pick up the awkward tongue they used to communicate. A few of the words they used were strange, and they seemed different as well. Taller, with dark eyes and hair. They dressed in bright colors and spoke freely, laughing often, so different than the strict codes of the merchants.  
I watched they banter back and forth playfully. They were so young. Not one of them could have been past adolescence yet. These pirates were teens.

It was the laughter that did it. I began to hope again, damn it. Damn them. Stupid fucking worthless pirates.

I had lived in varying states of agony for three years with no hope of escape. My hands and feet were bound in rings and heavy chain I could not break. If only a single hand was caught, I could easily cut it off and flee. But if I cut of a hand here, how could I cut off my other one? And my feet as well? I would bleed to death. I couldn’t free the railing I was chained to either. I knew I could not swim with these chains. I would drown.

I’d gotten used to it, being captive. But now? Hope was unfamiliar and just as painful as the agony of feeling sea spray fly up from the waves and cool my dry face. Such sweet relief, but agony to be so close to the sea, so close to the hope these strangers made me feel.

The unreachable water beneath me occupied most of my waking thoughts, and my dreams as well. Before this hell of mine, I would have said it was impossible to die of homesickness, of longing. But now I know it’s true.

I was so lost in my tangled thoughts that I almost didn’t notice a shorter female pirate with a strange orange hood pulled over her hair and a taller, much paler pirate beside her with a sword belted at his hip. They were headed towards me, talking between themselves.

“Have we checked this end yet?” The orange-hooded girl said, and the other answered.

“Not yet Rose.” He said, and now that they were closer I could see that the guy was paler than any human I’d ever seen. Even his hair was white. It was like looking at a walking cloud, or sea foam. The lack of color made the red of his outfit all the more shocking.

“Say, this was the ship you Saw, right?” he asked, relaxed and blank-faced. There was an odd contraption on his face, blocking his eyes. I’d never seen anything like it before.

“Yes, I’m quite sure this is the right vessel. It was even captained by a Lord English, just as I said it would be.” The girl, Rose, answered.

“But we haven’t found anything yet.” The pale guy said. “I thought you saw a captive on board, someone in need of saving?”

My heart nearly stopped. Was this human girl a Seer?

“My Sight is not that specific.” Rose said. “All I know is that we are needed here. There’s got to be something important on board, otherwise my Sight would not have shown me this ship or its foul captain so clearly.”

Holy shit. This was not good. A fucking human Seer. Humans weren’t supposed to have magic like that. Magic was something only mertrolls had.

And did she say that she Saw something, a captive on board? Me? 

Fuck.

This day just kept getting better and better.

The teen nodded, and seemed to notice the pile of rubble at the end of the deck, the loose tarp thrown over it. He nudged Rose with an elbow.

“Think there might be something in there?”

My eyes widened, and Rose scrutinized my hiding place carefully as the guy reached down to pull back the tarp. 

Panicked, I drew back hurriedly away from the front, and he must have heard the drag of my chains across the deck. He stopped, and I buried myself as far back from them as I could, shying away. They both heard the noise I made as I shifted between the crates and disturbed the chains. I was clenching the wooden shard so tight in my grasp I could feel its blunt edge pressing hard against my finger bones. I was fucked.

“What was that?” she said. The guy bent down and looked into the small hollow but I was invisible in the deep shadows. He saw the chain cluttered across the deck though, and reached a hand in. I thought about stabbing that searching hand with my knife, but somehow I couldn’t. Something froze inside me, locking my arm in place. I let him grab a length of chain and stand with it in his grasp.

He showed it to the hooded girl. “Chain. A lot of it.” He said.

She narrowed her eyes. I watched as the pile of crates changed to resemble a shelter of a kind in her mind. “Get back.” She said, and the teen complied.

They both looked at the shabby pile for a moment more. Several other crewmembers had noticed the disturbance and had gathered as well. They caught on quick.

“Could be a dog.” One of them, dressed in blue and carrying a hammer, said. Someone whistled, trying to tempt out a shy hound.

My mind was racing. Should I call out to them? What would they do? Kill me… or free me? Everything was too scrambled and racing for me to decide.

“Rose,” the guy said slowly, “Do you think…”

“Dave, get everyone else away.” The girl ordered decisively, a tremor in her voice.

“Alright everybody, I’m going to need you to fuck right off.” The pale guy, Dave, said. “Seer’s orders.”

“Aw, come on.” Someone else protested. “Can’t we help?”

“No.” Rose said firmly. “It’s too dangerous.”

They said they were here to help a captive. My mind seized that one thought.

The thought of freedom after so long was like ice in my veins, sharp edged and cold to sooth the burning from the murder-sun overhead. What, what if….

The crew vanished slowly, leaving just Rose and Dave. Rose pulled back her hood, revealing a mass of dark, tangled hair. Her eyes were violet, and stood out from the smooth soil color of her face. Those odd eyes narrowed, and I recognized the slight tingle of power that washed over me. Shit.

I snarled loudly, startling Dave, who dropped the chain with a loud clatter and drew his sword.

“What the hell Rose?” he said.

“Dave, shut up.” The Seer’s eyes were wide, and her face had paled.

“What is it?” he asked, “Because that sure as fuck wasn’t a normal sound and I don’t quite feel like getting my head ripped off by another one of your monsters today.”

“I don’t think it’s a monster.” She trailed off uncertainly.

“Sure sounded like one just then.” Dave huffed, still holding the sword. “Rose I’m serious. What is it?”

“The captive I Saw.” She said simply, steeling herself and drawing back her uncertainty. She reached down and grabbed the chain Dave had dropped, tugging at it experimentally.

The drag of the chain on my chaffed ankle and I couldn’t help the scalding hiss that broke from me. The tugging pressure stopped at once.

Rose drew a hand across her brow. I could see sweat beading there. “This is worse than I imagined.” She said.

“Can you please stop being so vague on purpose and fill me in, oh mighty Seer?” Dave’s sarcasm was nearly as scalding as my hiss.

“One moment please, I want to see if he can understand us.”

“He?”

Fucking Seers. Terezi was bad enough, but this human? No respect for personal privacy.

Rose sat down, peering into the shadows beneath the tarp.

“Why wouldn’t he understand us? And are you trying to tell me that there’s a person chained up under there?”

“Yes, and he’s in bad shape.”

“Holy hell Rose, move over.” Dave sat beside her, squishing in close to look in as well. I narrowed my eyes at them, unseen, and hissed sharply in warning. Dave set his sword slowly across his knees, still at the ready.

“Hold on Dave,” Rose said, “Don’t get too close. We don’t want to scare him.”

“I thought you said it wasn’t another monster.”

“… Well,” She started. 

“Shit.”

“I’m actually not sure what he is.” Rose admitted. “But he needs help.”

“That’s why I’m here.” Dave said. “You See them, then we help them. Let’s do this. I don’t care what’s under there. Nothing deserves to be chained to the deck like this.”

The words did little to soothe me. They could talk about helping things all they wanted, I still didn’t trust them.

I didn’t like them talking about me like that either. Like I didn’t understand them.

“Can you come out?” Rose asked, addressing me directly for the first time. “We won’t hurt you.”

“Fuck off.” I spat at them, the words strange and hissing. I tried not to garble them in my mouth, to be understood. I coughed, my throat unused to speaking out loud.

Dave whistled. “It’s got a mouth on it, whatever it is.” He said. “I like it.”

“Not now Dave.” Rose said, looking relieved that I could talk. “Can you understand us?” she asked me.

I kept quiet, distrust strangling my instinctive cursing.

“We want to help.” Rose said.

“Humans.” I snarled. “Get away.”

“No can do, I’m afraid.” Dave said. “You see, we came a long way and fought a lot of people to find you.”

“We want to free you.” Rose said, “If you’ll let us.”

“Free me?” I asked suspiciously, “Why? What’s in it for you?”

“Nothing,” Rose said, surprised. “You’re the one who called me here, didn’t you?”

“I wasn’t calling for you,” I said. “Seer.” I made the word a sneer.

Rose was untouched. “Yes, I am a Seer. And we both know that you need help desperately. Why keep refusing like this?”

Damn them. And damn Hope too. The lot of them could drown in oil.

“… Do you really mean to help?” I asked, weakening, hating the waver in my voice.

“I swear on it.” Rose said.

My fingers tightened around my makeshift weapon. This was too perfect to be true.

“If you come out, we can take those chains off you.” Dave said, his brow furrowing to try and see me.

“If either of you tries anything,” I said, “I’ll kill you.”

“Sounds good.” Dave answered quickly. “But let’s try to do this with no killing.”

I steeled myself, swallowing thickly.

“Alright.” I broke, hope tearing itself painful sharp through me. “I’ll let you help.”

They exchanged looks of triumph.

“But there are rules!” I said. “No other humans. And I stay under here.”

“Of course.” Rose said. “We do this your way.”

“Good.” I huffed.

“Can you tell us what needs to be done?” Rose asked gently.

“You’ll need something to cut the chains.” I said, rattling them around with discomfort. “Something thick and strong.”

“Where are you chained at?” Dave asked.

“Both ankles, both wrists. Thick iron shackles.” I said. “I can’t move much in them. There isn’t enough slack.”

“Hold on a second.” Dave said, then yelled, “John! Get over here.”

The one in blue from earlier came over eagerly.

“What is it?” he asked, trying to peer past Dave’s shoulder at me. My skin crawled.

“Don’t try to look.” Dave said gently. “Secret stuff’s going on. Sorry to do this, but can you go fetch us some bolt cutters?” he asked.

Rose spoke up, “And a bucket of salt water and a thick blanket?”

John’s eyebrows raised, but he agreed and was off again.

“How did you know?” I asked quietly.

Rose shrugged. “It’s not a hard guess.” She said, the sea breeze blowing her fluffy dark hair.

“Can you really See me that clearly?” I asked.

“No. I can’t really See things like that. I just had a sense from when you first called out to me. You had the sound of the sea all over you.” She said. “I kind of guessed before we met.”

I swallowed again, taking a deep breath.

“Rose,” Dave asked, “Is he really not human?”

She ignored him. “Did you mean to call out to me like that?” she said softly.

“No,” I wheezed. “I was trying to call a different Seer.”

“You know another Seer!” Rose was ecstatic. “That’s fantastic. Perfect.”

“Not a Seer like you.” I said quickly, “I knew it wouldn’t work.”

“What do you mean?” Rose asked.

“How are you a Seer?” I asked, ignoring the question. “Human’s aren’t supposed to have magic.” That was kind of the whole point of things. Why I was in this clusterfuck in the first place.

“I don’t know, I just am.” She answered. “And you have magic too, if you called out to both of the Seers.”

“I don’t have magic,” I said. “You don’t know anything, do you?”

Rose looked hurt. “I know lots of things.” She said.

“About what you are?” I asked.

She looked down at the deck. “I’m trying to figure things out on my own,” she said. “I don’t have anyone to teach me.”

I kept silent. I was kind of in awe at this little human Seer, who with no training had Seen me so clearly. Feferi had been right after all. She'd throw a fit when she found out.

John returned with the items, dropped them off, and backed away and out of sight again.

Dave hefted the heavy cutting tool. “Think this will work?”

“How do you want to do this?” Rose asked.

I was silent. My small space wouldn’t allow another person inside, so I would have to crawl out to them. I bit back the panic that threatened to break loose at the thought. I lifted a foot a little, felt the drag of the metal. Dug my claws into the wood beneath me.

“I’ll… crawl out a little.” I said. “Just enough.”

I didn’t try to hide myself, not now. I slowly drug my thin frame forward just enough to come out into the light enough for them to see me.

Rose’s eyes widened and she gasped, her fingers digging deeply into Dave’s arm. His face was completely expressionless, but I saw his hand clench around the hilt of his sword.

“Finished staring?” I snapped, knowing I was quite a sight in my current state.

I saw as they observed the chains that bound me and the thin webbing between the fingers that held my only weapon, tipped with black claws. My skin was cracked and dry and coated in hatched scars but still the color I had been born with, a deep gray that darkened to almost black at my feet and hands and lightened to paler shades along my belly and face. I didn’t dare to breathe again until Rose spoke.

“We’re going to get you out of those.” She swore, and Dave began swearing a quiet stream of curses under his breath.

I lay there, breathing heavily. 

I was already so strung up with nerves that when Rose stepped closer I spun at her sharply in warning, hissing.

In the silence that came after, the burst of strength I’d been going on began to ebb away. I’d been running off an adrenaline high this whole time, and here was the crash. 

Jegus, it sucked. Tremors made my limbs shake, and I was forced to fall to the deck as my legs gave out. I tried to support my frame with my arms, but they were shaking a well. I was so weak, a pitiful sight. Out of the water everything was so much heavier.

The knowledge that I was obviously suffering and no threat to them in my weakened state made Rose bold enough to ignore my hiss of warning.

The female was studying me again. We were very similar in form and face, though the only major difference between us besides the webbing between my fingers and my color was that the toes of my feet were much longer than hers, webbed, and tipped with claws as well. And the small nubby horns I had. Humans looked weird without horns of any sort. I’d never get used to it.

I waited there on the deck, just out of reach still of the burning sun, doing nothing but breathing in an out. I could feel the Rose and Dave staring at me as they argued about the best way to do this. I was barely listening. I needed rest. I don’t remember being this tired before. My heart was fluttering inside me. Blackness drifted at the edges of my vision. 

Rose knelt closer to me. She knelt down and asked if they could try to get the chains off me. I didn’t respond. I couldn’t think. My head was empty. I thought I might be dying. Earlier I’d used strength I didn’t have and energy I couldn’t replace. I was a living skeleton; you could see my every bone and joint clearly against my staved body.

I drifted off.

The next thing I knew, someone had thrown a full bucket of water on me. I sputtered, choking, and my eyes opened. There were humans around me but I couldn’t understand what was going on. One of them was crouched by my feet, and I instinctively lashed out at him with my foot, kicking him weakly away. I could have used my back claws and blinded him, dug my claws into his eyeball and pulled it out, but I didn’t. there was a clatter as I knocked something off of his face, a clang as whatever it was bounced across the deck. A moment later a second bucket was emptied over my head and I felt my mind clear as the pirates backed away again. I was awake now, but barely. 

The water was cool and soothing on my dry skin, a blessing. It cleared my head. Made me realize how close to death I really was. It scared me. I blinked saltwater out of my eyes.

“We need to get these off of you, now.” The Rose said, and Dave held up a large cutting tool and a metal file. 

She knelt slowly and made sure I was in her line of sight.

“Will you allow us to work on these chains? We need to get them off as quickly as possible, and I promise we’ll be gentle.” She said. “Are you back here with us?”

“Yes, sorry for the kick. You startled me.” I said weakly. I’d knocked the contraption off of Dave’s face, revealing pale eyelashes and eyes like drops of blood. He quickly replaced the item and hid his gaze beneath it again.

There was no way out of this unless I trusted them, so I overcame my fear and nodded, cautiously extending a leg to let them have a foot to work on. I flinched away when they moved the ring that bound my ankle, irritating the raw flesh there where the ring had repeatedly cut into me and tore down through the flesh. The wounds still bleed sluggishly because they had been there for so long. But I gritted my teeth and let them work, and they tried to be gentle as possible.

After an hour had passed, the heavy file had made barely a dent in the selected link. I didn’t speak or move the entire time. They had soaked a thick blanket in the sea and had given it to me. I wrapped myself up in the blessed water, the blanket shielding me from the sun and cooling my dry skin.

After a while, I felt recovered enough to sit up and watch and drink some seawater they had for me, which I cupped in my hands and drank gratefully but slowly. The clear tasting brine was delicious, and Dave made a face at me as I drank.

“Dude, that’s kind of messed up.” He observed.

Rose smacked him lightly on the arm.

“What? It is, and I'm just trying to talk to keep my mind off of things. And drinking seawater is the safest topic my mind could come up with right now.”

“You’re rambling again.” Rose said lightly.

The lack of progress was getting to her, whose scowl deepened with each passing minute. While they tried to free me, I thought about going home again. That was the thought that was sustaining me. Home. 

The problem was, in my current condition, I knew I would not make it without help. If these pirates succeeded in removing the chains, I couldn’t just jump overboard like I’d fantasized so many times. That would be stupid. I had no idea where I was, or how far help was. I would probably get eaten by a shark or some other creature, or starve to death in the middle of nowhere. There was only one way that I could think of to get out of this, and it hadn’t been used in living memory.

Finally, Rose gave up on sawing through the metal, and ordered Dave to try and cut off the metal cuff around my ankle instead. Dave lifted the large tool he had brought, and carefully fitted one end under the steel and heaved down with his arms. The ring groaned, compressed along its joint, and I hissed tightly with pain as the metal pressed deeply into my torn skin. With a loud snap the metal finally gave way, cut in two. Dave hooked his fingers between the two sides of the ring and with brute strength tore the two halves open enough for me to slip my foot free of the steel.

He dropped the ruined ring to the deck, and I marveled at my freed foot as it began to bleed anew.

“I’m fine.” I said, swallowing the pain. “Do it again.”

Dave looked like he might throw up. I cupped saltwater in my hands from the pail at my side and let the water trickle down over the raw flesh, dulling the pain. The bleeding stopped soon after.

Excitement fueled them, and together they quickly freed my other foot.

We encountered a problem with the last two rings though. The ones on my wrists were smaller than the ones formerly on my feet, tighter. They were too tight for Dave to get the tool under them without tearing open my already shredded wrists. I wanted to tell them to do it anyway, but I was in danger of bleeding to death if they did.

So instead they cut the closest link of chain, leaving the rings alone. The tight bands were still there when they finished, but the weight of the chains was gone. I was free to move about, and the remaining rings didn’t bother me much. The pain was nothing. I could get them removed easily once I got back to my people.

During the procedure, it was inevitable that the pirates notice how severely underweight and injured I was. I had been beaten and whipped ad burned. The scars and injuries were very noticeable against my dark skin, and the Rose’s eyes narrowed and Dave’s mouth grew smaller in rage whenever I tensed away in instinctive fear whenever one of them moved unexpectedly. 

Once I was free, they left me alone. I could tell Rose knew that I was uncomfortable around them and needed to be alone with my thoughts awhile. I silently tended to my ankles, one of which I knew was probably broken. Once I was sure I remembered what to do, I memorized the shape of the pirate ship bobbing contently beside the merchant vessel. It had distinctive black sails. I would make sure their ship was properly branded and identified as a friend if I made it home safely. They had been kind enough to help me, so this was how I could help them in return.

The sun was setting now on this longest of days. I’d crawled back underneath the tarp, watching the crew move about. I was still curious to learn about them, which was what had landed me in this mess three years ago. But could I trust this female Seer? I would need her help if I was going to get home alive.

When I next saw her, I tried to get her attention. She saw me, and saw that I was alert and fully back in my mind. I saw the spark of curiosity in her eyes as she warily came over, Dave at her side with his sword at his hip.

“What is your name?” I asked. I knew it by now, but wanted to do this right. It had been so long since I’d had a conversation with a living thing. I craved social contact nearly as much as the water below.

She paused at hearing me speak so civilly, then said. “My name is Rose, and this is my brother Dave. We’re kind of in charge here, and as you know, I’m a human Seer.”

“Good,” I said. “My name’s Karkat. Of the Vantas family.”

“How can you talk to us?” Rose asked, “I can tell from your manner of speak this isn’t your native tongue.” 

“It’s not,” I said tiredly, “I’ve studied you awkward language for years. Most mertrolls don’t speak landdweller.”

“So what does your actual language sound like?” Dave asked curiously.

“My actual name is-” I broke out into seadweller speech, long flowing melodious clicking syllables that broke into the next on like waves. Their faces blanked in shock. “But you can call me Karkat.” I said simply.

“Karkat.” She said, rolling the syllables around on her tongue, trying to taste the difference in them. “That’s a strange name.”

“Not really.” I answered weakly.

“How did you get here?” Dave asked, anger pulling his lips up in disgust. i knew what he meant. How did I end up chained to the railing like this?

“Swam too close.” I said simply. “English netted me. I’ve been here for almost three years.”

"Oh Jegus,” Rose said faintly. “But I only just Saw you last week.”

“You only were close enough or strong enough to hear my call a week ago.” I answered.

“I thought you had no magic?” she accused, “How could you call out to me like that?”

“You are a Seer,” I said, “You only See things, and you only know that half of yourself. What kind of Seer are you? Do you know?” I asked.

“I don’t understand.” Rose said, frowning.

“Every person is made up of two parts.” I exclaimed. “One part if you is the Seer, and lends you the Sight. The other part dictates how your Sight works.” I said patiently. Classpects were easy for me, but the concept was entirely foreign to the humans. 

“The other Seer I know, she’s a Seer of Mind.” I said, “She can See the choices that people make, and what outcomes they cause. She can See what makes you make the choices you do.”

“She’s a mind reader!” Dave whistled, shocked.

“No, she’s not a mind reader, don’t be ridiculous.” I said. Dave scoffed at me.

“I can’t See like that.” Rose said quietly.

“That’s because you’re not a Seer of Mind.” I said. “There are classes, and there are aspects. You only get one of each, and every combination is different from all the others.”

“So there are lots of other, different Seers out there?” Rose asked, growing exited again.

“Close, but Seer’s aren’t that common.” I said. “Sight is kind of rare.”

She looked pleased. “So if there are Seers, what else is there?”

“Lots of things.” I said, “Magic things humans shouldn’t know about.”

“So am I right to guess that some part of you, this classes and aspects thing you mentioned, is what allowed you to reach out to me?” Rose guessed shrewdly. 

Light. She was definitely Light, and too smart by half for a human.

“I didn’t mean to call you.” I admitted, coughing. “It’s not something I can control.”

I coughed again, a dry, wracking sound.

“Easy,” Dave said, “You need to rest.”

“No, rest won’t help me now.” I said, “And you two need to know some things.”

“What sort of things?”

“I didn’t swim too close on accident.” I said seriously. “I was on a mission, from the Heiress herself.”

“I’d tell you who that is, but you don’t need to know and I don’t have the time to go into detail about everything, so listen close.” I said, “I can only say this once. We’ve known about human magic users for a while now. We don’t know why you humans have started recognizing your classpected abilities, but the subject is a serious one. I was following orders to look into the matter when I was caught. So in a way, by finding you and Dave, I completed my mission.” I said. “I found proof of human magic users. Feferi is going to be ecstatic.”

“Who’s Feferi?”

“Not important right now,” I said, “What’s important is that someone needs to teach these human magic users to stop fucking up before they kill everyone.”

Rose and Dave were silent.

“Do you really think that Seers are the only things out there?” I asked gently. “There are other, more powerful and more dangerous abilities that Sight. If a human doesn’t know what they’re doing, they could really fuck up the world. We had to get involved before the damage started piling up.”

“Has damage been done?” Rose asked quickly.

“Nothing yet that can’t be fixed.” I said. “But Rose, you’re only the first of many. Soon, every human will know themselves like mertrolls do. I don’t know why it’s happening, but it’s probably something we did accidentally that triggered it.”

“Can I admit that nothing you’re saying is making any sense?” Dave said, and I slowly turned to him.

“I know what you are,” I told him, locking eyes behind his strange shades. He didn't look away. “Part of me is good at knowing what other people are.”

“Can you tell what I am?” Rose asked, trepidation in her tone.

“Seer of Light.” I said. “I can’t go into details, but it explains how you See the way you do.”

I could tell she was bursting with questions, eager for knowledge like any Light would.

“Don’t pull yourself out of this,” I told Dave sternly, “You’re in this shit too.”

“Really?” he shot back, “because I think I might have noticed if I had any strange abilities or anything.”

“It’s not magic, not like how you think it is.” I explained. “I could feel it the moment I saw you. You share a part of me. We’re both Knights.”

“That kind of sounds like a load of bullshit, but because my sister Saw you here in a vision and turns out mertrolls exist and magic is real and goddamn fucking everyone apparently is a part of this so you know what? I’m just going to say screw it and go with the flow. Okay. So…. What the fuck is a Knight?”

“Simply put, we’re the Protectors.” I said. “We fight to protect others, through our aspect normally. I don’t know your full classpect, but I know you’re a Knight, and not a Knight like me.”

This was good. I liked talking like this, but I was running out of time and I could never get out even half of what I needed to. The moon was rising. It was time to focus.

“Rose,” I said. “I’m sorry, but this talk will have to happen later. I don’t know where I am.”

She knew I didn’t mean where on the ocean, but where under it. I was lost.

“What can we do to help?” she asked.

I looked away. “You may have freed me, but can I trust you? I won’t survive much longer unless I find my people again. Only they can help me now. I wouldn’t make it if I tried to return on my own. I’m not strong enough. I would starve or be killed. Even free of the chains I’m no closer to home.”

Talking like this was tiring me out. I was short of breath. I was running out of time.

“Listen.” I said. “If you swear never to reveal what I’m about to tell you, I might have a chance. But I’ll need your help, and a promise to never harm any of my people with the knowledge I’ll give you.”

She lowered her orange hood and placed her arm across her chest, hand in a fist over her heart. “I swear.” Her violet eyes were steady.

“Good.” I said. “Fucking lot of good it’ll do it I die now. I’ll die again if I die, simply out of the extreme irony of dying the first time.”

Dave bit back a laugh.

“I understand we need to get you home safely,” Rose said, “But that isn’t the end, is it?”

“No.” I said. “The mertroll existence secret is kind of blown out of the water by now. It was useless once humans started becoming Seers and Sylphs anyway. Don’t think about that now. We’ll find you when we need to.” I said. “I know one Seer who will be dying to meet you.”

“I’ve Seen you, and others like you.” Rose said. “Something’s happening, isn’t it?”

“Nothing that can’t wait until I’m not about to drop dead.” I croaked.

I took a deep breath, and said, “There is a way to summon us from the surface, but you’ll need another longboat…”

The pair of them was in motion as soon as I fell into an exhausted finish. It was Rose that tried to get me standing, but my legs couldn’t hold up my thin form. Everything was so much heavier out of the water, I could barely hold my head up. Dave quickly stepped in to help, once he saw I could not manage alone, and together they each had one of my arms and slowly carried me across the deck and over the planking between the two bound ships. It was night now, and I don’t think any other human saw us. Once we were on their ship, Dave grandly announced my welcome to the deserted deck.

“Welcome to the Aimless Renegade.” He said, “Best floating vessel this side of Derse.”  
The black sails were tattered and worn, but the wood was clean and new. I wondered how a bunch of teens had gotten a hold of such a good pirate ship, but let the matter slide.

Rose quickly readied a longboat. She expertly gathered and strung together the items I’d told her about and threw them into the small boat.

For the next part, Dave had volunteered himself. Rose wasn’t happy about it, but agreed.

It was night by the time the boat was launched and Dave started rowing away from his ship. It was necessary that he be alone, except for me. The moon was bright above us as the ship’s lights vanished into the darkness. After he had rowed far enough away, he put the oars up and readied the hollow bamboo rods he’d brought. Watching him start to string the shells and hollow wooden scraps together was the last thing I remembered before my strength gave out and I finally lost consciousness.

\---------------------------------------- ------------------------------- ---------------------------------  
As soon as the mertroll fell still I knew something was wrong. The dark skinned creature was weak, but there had always been this curious, hungry spark in his eyes. Proof of an intense, highly present intelligence. So when I felt his eyes droop closed I stopped what I was doing to check on him.

“Are you alright?” I asked.

There was no response. Not even a twitch.

“Karkat?” 

I leaned down and hesitantly prodded a finger into him, into an undamaged spot of flesh, trying to get a response. Nothing. 

Panicked, I flattened a hand against his thin chest to feel for a heartbeat. Under my palm his skin was warm and smooth where rough scars didn’t interrupt it, and his heart pounded thickly under my hand. Slower, much slower than a human’s and thicker somehow, like the organ itself was much larger than normal. His heart beat differently too. It pulsed in double pairs of beats, with long pauses between the separate movements.

He was slipping, drifting away with the changing tide.

But it was beating, so he must still be alive. I couldn’t tell a thing about his breathing, so I would have to rely on his heart. I was surprised he was still alive. I never imagined anyone could live under such conditions for so long. He’d been dying for days, I knew. It was sheer luck that led us to take the merchant vessel when we did and free him. I had never seen a creature so broken in body, starved and beaten beyond recognition.

Fucking hell. I was pissed. Somehow I felt responsible for this. Somehow, we should have known about Karkat sooner, should have been able to act before it came to this, my hand over his heart the only proof he was still alive.

I focused on the constant motion of my hands as I set the contraption I had so hastily created in the sea and shook it in the dark water. He had told me it didn’t matter what it was, so long as it rattled around and made noise. A different line in each hand, on either side of the small boat. Hollow bamboo lengths, scrap metal, and sea shells.

“The vibrations will call them.” Karkat had said. “If they hear, they’ll come.”

“And if there’s no one around to hear?” I asked.

He wouldn’t answer, but I knew the truth. He would be dead before the moon rose again. No manner of rest or food could help him now, and we both knew it.

Hours passed, and the night grew chill. I was alone on the calm sea with nothing but the unending rattle of my hands and a fading heartbeat that felt weaker every time I checked.

I wanted to fight something, wanted to see the red that I could taste on my tongue.

I had felt rage before. And anger. But never this seething pit of hatred that curdled in my insides like spoiled meat. Three years. Three years he had been chained in that hell, and I find him on the very last possible day.

Fuck. Fuck fuck fuuuuuck.

What kind of protector was I? Maybe Karkat was right about that Knight shit after all. 

I looked at him, branded the image of his still form in my mind. People were supposed to look calm and peaceful while asleep, but Karkat just looked dead. It made my teeth grind together and heat fill my veins. He looked like something that had been dead for weeks and was left out to dry in the sun. He was covered in injuries and scars that had barely healed and wounds that were still fresh enough to bleed.

Such hatred. Tomorrow I was going to find that longboat with the remaining merchant crewmembers and let them know what’s up. That English was one lucky bastard that he’d gotten away before I knew about Karkat.

After a while more I took a break, one hand still shaking the shells and such. With the other I held Karkat’s skeletal hand in mine, careful not to damage the delicate webbing between his fingers. I studied the black claws that he had, and thought how for three years he had been all alone with no one touching him except to cause more pain. I remembered how he’d flinched away from our hands like a beaten dog. I held his dark hand in mine and spoke to him. I urged him to hold on, to keep fighting.

Karkat was the strongest person I’d ever met. Three years and he hadn’t been driven insane or given up hope. So I wasn’t giving up on him anytime soon.

My fingers had pruned in the brine, but I kept with it. I did not allow myself to stop the endless rattle for even a moment. I had lost track of the hours.

“Come on.” I said sharply to the moonlit sea, the empty water. “Where the fuck are you?”

I continued in this pattern for so long that I almost missed the first flicker of a response. But when I first noticed the slight disturbance in the water I froze and sat up from my hunched position. The rattle stopped, because I saw that it had worked. I lifted the strings of junk that may have just saved a life and set them quietly in the boat. I set my shades aside as well. It was dark enough now that I didn’t need them.

Around me, barely visible in the moonlight that illuminated the sea in silver, swam four figures. They were keeping their distance, and I could have easily mistaken them for other forms of ocean life, but I knew instinctively that these were not animals. I could feel it. I was being watched.

I remembered what Karkat had told me. I could hear the words again as if he was speaking them with a voice roughened and cracked from thirst and lack of use.

“If they show themselves, hold up your hands to show that you are unarmed.”

I followed his instructions to the line, and slowly held up my empty hands. My sword stayed sheathed at my side.

Warily, the figures came closer, swarming around the boat. Not one of them had touched the surface yet. I could see their light forms swimming just under the surface in the moonlight, black as ink. I was surrounded.

Thank Jegus. The cavalry was here, fins and horns and all.

I kept still and waited until one of the four broke off and hesitantly swam up to the front of the boat to where I was. I watched as it slowly raised its head from the water to look at me with deep indigo eyes. Only the top of his head and his eyes were visible, the rest of him was still underwater. The outline of a broken horn showed against the moon and the mertroll watched me warily.

But that was all I needed. The strange mertroll used caution but seemed curious about why I had called them. With my foot I checked to see if Karkat’s heart was still beating, and when I knew it was I carefully tried to wave the other mertroll over so he could see Caprion, but he didn’t understand and came no closer. He could only see me and not the inside of the boat, so with a deep breath I slowly reached down and lifted Karkat’s limp hand up for them to see, the dark skin and webbing unmistakable in the moonlight.

“I’ve got one of yours,” I said, “and,” I broke off as the mertroll reared back.

The result was instantaneous. The creature’s eyes flew wide in sudden recognition, and it reared back in the water, calling out to the others in the strange tongue I had heard Karkat use. Instantly there were others around me, and those three leveled sharpened spears at me that I had never seen before. They wore armbands of woven cloth and their chests were bare and muscular. One even had a bow of all things, featherless and slick.

It made me hate the merchants more. These were beautiful creatures, lithe and graceful in the water, but also sharp with watchfulness. The three who held spears did so with the practiced skill of veterans. This exact event was why Rose had warned me not to go alone. Shit. 

I bristled under the threat, but kept calm. The lead one, satisfied that I was properly under control, reached up a hand and with an easy strength pulled himself up out of the water and half into the boat.  
He paused, and froze in shock at the sight of Karkat. I heard him draw in a sharp breath. He said something, very quietly, and leaned down to feel for a pulse. When he discovered that Karkat was still alive, he quickly pulled away and looked at me, wide eyed, with something that could only have been horror.

One of the others called out, curious, still leveling his spear at me. The lead one shook his head, tried to speak but failed. He said something else, and suddenly the rest of them were up around the boat as well with sounds of shock. Only one kept his spear ready, and that one hissed ferociously at me and bared his teeth when he saw the state that Karkat was in. He lifted his spear as if he would impale me with it, the strange finned ears of his flaring.

“I didn’t do this.” I said defensively. “I saved him.”

They didn’t understand me. Slowly I made a bracelet with one hand and wrapped it around my wrist to mimic chains. I made a breaking motion and took my hand away, pointing at the obvious signs of imprisonment around his feet and the metal rings still on his wrists.

“I freed him.” I said.

The lead one looked like he understood, and spoke to the big one threatening me with his spear, who scowled, looking like he’s rather just kill me and call it a day. Or night. Whatever.

I wished I could understand them, wish we had some way to communicate. Wished for a lot of things actually.

I backed away when three of them came over and began to lift Karkat’s limp body out of the small boat. I tried to help, but when I did the big one hissed and jabbed his spear at me, forcing me to stay back. They didn’t want me touching him, I thought. They still didn’t know if I had something to do with how abused Karkat was.

I saw how gently they lifted his weak body, speaking quietly to each other and tracing the scars that marred Karkat’s chest, how they cradled him in the water before they disappeared, and knew that they would help him.

I knew that Karkat would live.

Smiling, I turned back and looked at the stars, gathering up the oars to start rowing back to my ship. I had done good work today, and rarely were there happy endings like this. I thanked the sea and the stars that other mertrolls had heard my call and had arrived to take Karkat home.

I hoped they treated him like the goddamned hero he was.

In my heart I knew that Karkat would live, and that we would meet again.

There was still a lot of work left for us to do. And Rose had Seen it, so it must be true.

I set the oars to work, my heart lighter than it has been in months. I would see Karkat again. This was just the beginning

**Author's Note:**

> God that got weird. And bad, but oh well. I never meant it to be anything other than it is. But let's face it, any excuse to write a pirate Dave is a good one. Contrary to the ending, there will be no more of this story. It was just the product of a crazy dream from my Davekat addicted mind. I'm beginning to think that I might have a problem. These two boys are infecting even my dreams now. (Not that I'm complaining....)


End file.
